84 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1907. 



VIEWS ON THE CONGO. 



THE CONDITION OF TRADE. 



ONE of the illustrations on this page is a view at Citas station, 

 Stanley Pool, on the Congo river — the point where rubber 

 coming downstream has to be transferred, on account of the 

 cataracts, to the Congo railway, by which it is conveyed 260 miles 

 toward the Atlantic to Matadi, where it goes aboard steamers 

 for Europe. The picture shows an upper Congo boat and its 



Coxno Ste.miers -\xi) C.\rco -\t Citas. 



cargo just unloaded. -\s has been mentioned before in The 

 India Rubber World, most of the trading companies up the 

 Congo are represented, in the transfer of the rubber at Stanley 

 Pool, by Compagnie Industrielle et des Transports ou Stanley 

 Pool "Citas," the direction of which is in the hands of Captain 

 Vitta, in Africa, and Monsieur E. Hinck, in Brussels. Monsieur 

 Hinck also belongs to the administrative department of the Congo 

 railway, and is a director in the American Congo Co., the com- 

 pany formed in New York last year to work a rubber concession 

 on the river Kassai. 



A.nother View at Citas. 



[Showing -Mr. .S. 1'. Wrner (on the right) and Mr. li. .M. Cravath.] 



The second illustration, also a view at Citas, shows two gentle- 

 men connected with the American Congo Co. — Mr. Samuel Phil- 

 lips Verner, general manager (on the right), and Mr. Erasmus M. 

 Cravath. Mr. Verner is in charge of the preliminary exploration 

 work of the American Congo Co. in the interior, a region with 

 which he has long been familiar. He had twelve years' business 

 experience in the Congo Free State and was special connnissioner 

 of the country to the St. Louis exposition in 1904. 



A copy of the Index to Mr. Pearson's "Crude Rubber and 

 Compounding Ingredients" will be sent free by mail. 



IT is asserted generally in the rubber trade that up to October 

 last the volume of business was large and the demand good. 

 One of the largest concerns in the country reports sales for the 

 first ten months of this year 24 per cent, larger than for the 

 same months of igo6; another and still larger company reports 

 business for the current fiscal year, to November 9, at 11 per 

 cent, larger, and so on. Collections likewise were satisfactory'. 

 There have been indications visible for some time past, however, 

 of lighter buying in certain large channels, though one important 

 company in the field of railway supplies' reports a larger trade 

 in that line in October than in the same month last year. This 

 was attributed to the railway companies involved having post- 

 poned buying until replenishing their supplies had become a 

 necessity. 



The suspension of certain New York banks — not due, by the 

 way, to any evidence of their not being solvent — was followed 

 by a stringency of currency throughout the country, to relieve 

 which the government has resorted to every means within its 

 power, and millions of gold have been imported. The effects 

 of the stringency have not all disappeared, however, and the 

 leading centers report continued delays in making collections 

 from country districts. In city and country alike, for that mat- 

 ter, the disposition is to hold real money as long as possible 

 Checks to a very large extent have been accepted by banks only 

 "for collection." 



As a member of the trade expresses, it : "We hear all the time 

 that the farmers have plenty of money, and are prosperous, but 

 they take good care to hold on to it. But when they have any- 

 thing to sell, they always demand spot cash." Another rubber 

 man said that much of the recent trouble seemed due to a popu- 

 lar ignorance of banking. People expected interest on their 

 bank deposits, and then were surprised if they couldn't draw 

 out their money on a minute's notice. 



A leading manufacturing corporation early in October, be- 

 fore the recent "panic" began, sent out instructions to all its 

 factories to retrench in every expense possible and to reduce the 

 working force. In two of the factories, later, it became neces- 

 sary to recall some of the men on account of the receipt of 

 important orders. To-day those factories are working only on 

 orders. 



Some of the rubber shoe factories have been closed, and not 

 all of them for a definite time. An official of one of the com- 

 panies said : "We have made and shipped to date more rubber 

 shoes than in the same months of any former year, but they 

 have all been on 'detailed' orders. Ordinarily we should keep 

 at work adding goods to stock, and in all probability should sell 

 the goods before the season closes, but on account of the finan- 

 cial situation just now we do not deem this wise. The date of 

 resumption of work will depend upon how further orders come in." 



"Business is good," said a mechanical goods manufacturer. 

 "That is, it has been good. There was nothing the matter with 

 the country, nothing the matter with business, money was plenti- 

 ful. But this scare has come on, all without reason, and it will 

 take a good while for business to reach its old level again." 



The fact that crude rubber prices have fallen lately below 

 any quotations for several years past does not necessarily imply 

 that the cost of rubber goods will decline to a corresponding 

 extent — at least for some time to come. While rubber may be 

 bought in open market for less money than formerly, every 

 steamer arriving from rubber ports is carrying rubber con- 

 tracted for in advance at higher than current quotations. Be- 

 sides, manufacturers are understood generally to be well supplied 

 with rubber bought at the prices prevailing two or three months 

 ago, or earlier. Naturally this rubber must be disposed of be- 

 fore factories can take into account, in making up cost lists, the 

 prices now quoted for rubber in open market. It is estimated 

 in the trade that little rubber reaches the actual consumer in the 



